Old People? Elders? Honored Citizens? Which is it?

My question

So what I really want to know is: Have I somehow misstepped? If old and elder are out, what am I supposed to call people over 65? Something horribly corny like `people of an advanced age`?
I mean sure, I'll call them grandma or grandpa or their name in person, but how am I to refer to them generically?

Follow up

I've asked several people about this, and apparently it's because I somehow missed that being "old" is considered a bad thing in this country. I value age and experience, so it didn't even occur to me. It seems like the short answer is "there's no way to refer to the older generation without making someone uncomfortable". The disconnect seems to be rooted in the USA's overvaluation of youth.

I'm still not sure what the respectful way to talk about it is. The "Older Generation" is the least-innacurate phrase I've heard, while still being respectful. It's also a lot of letters to use on political correctness when speaking about things in twitter-length bits. Seems like the term I'll go with in conversation though, where character counts aren't a thing.